قَالَ يَـٰٓإِبْلِيسُ مَا مَنَعَكَ أَن تَسْجُدَ لِمَا خَلَقْتُ بِيَدَىَّ ۖ أَسْتَكْبَرْتَ أَمْ كُنتَ مِنَ ٱلْعَالِينَ
Qaala yaaa Ibleesu maa man'aka an tasjuda limaa khalaqtu biyadai; astakbarta am kunta min 'aaleen
God said, ‘Iblis, what prevents you from bowing down to the man I have made with My own hands? Are you too high and mighty?’
God said, "Iblis, what kept you from prostrating to what I created with my own hands? Were you too proud, or were you among the exalted?"
Two possibilities are put to Iblis inside a single question, arrogance or standing among al-ʿālīn, and that second branch has kept commentators busy: some read it as naming a real rank of beings above the angels, others as scorn, offering a status nobody holds. Mā manaʿaka assumes an obstacle, asking what got in the way, which is an odd thing to ask of a refusal freely chosen.